is a Japanese

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series produced by

Tatsunoko Production and often shortened to , is a Japanese animation company. The studio's name has a double meaning in Japanese: "Tatsu's child" (Tatsu is a nickname for Tatsuo) and " sea dragon", the inspiration for its seahorse logo. Tatsunoko Production was e ...

and aired in 1976. There were 36 episodes. It is the second installment to

Takara was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy, Tomy Company, Ltd. to form Tomy, Takara Tomy. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and board games. They cr ...

's ''Magne-Robo'' franchise.

Outline

''Gowappa'' was the first

super robot Mecha, also known as giant robot or simply robot, is a genre of anime and manga that feature mecha in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; " super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and "real robot", where r ...

anime to feature a female as the leader and main character. The concept of a group of young adults gathering to fight evil can be seen in other Tatsunoko works such as ''

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is a Japanese animated media franchise about a five-member superhero ninja team created by Tatsuo Yoshida and produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The original anime series, which debuted in 1972, was eponymously entitled ''Kagaku Ninja-tai Gatc ...

'' and in manga written by

Tatsuo Yoshida was a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, as well as anime pioneer who founded the animation studio Tatsunoko Production as a businessman and the original author of many anime works. As the first president of Tatsunoko Production, Yoshida supp ...

and Ippei Kuri, but as of 2008, the only other Tatsunoko production featuring a female lead is '' Time Bokan 2000: Kaitou Kiramekiman''. ''Gowappa 5 Gordam'' has a bright theme song and light-hearted situations, but the story also includes more serious parts, and there are episodes that end on a rather bitter note. Because ''Gowappa 5 Gordam'' was competing with another robot anime, '' UFO Robo Grendizer'' (on

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

), as well as a popular television game show called ''Up Down Quiz'' (on

Mainichi Broadcasting System JOOY-DTV (channel 4), branded as or (formerly known as from 1959 to 2011), is a Japanese television station serving as the Kansai region key station of the Japan News Network, owned-and-operated by a subsidiary of MBS Media Holdings with ...

), both in the same timeslot, it faced an extremely difficult ratings battle, and was later moved mid-broadcast from Sunday's "Golden Hour" to a weekday evening timeslot, where its ratings suffered. After moving, Tatsunoko attempted to broaden the scope of the series by making Gordam itself into a combining robot, but this did not bring viewers back, so it ended after three seasons (36 episodes). Before and since this series, there have been many Tatsunoko-made series broadcast on the same channels that had to fight for ratings in the same manner. "Gowappa", the name of the group of five main characters, is an abbreviation created from two of the kanji in the phrase "five children" (五人の小童, ''gonin no kowappa'') to create 五童 (''gowappa''). However, one of the candidates for the series' name was "Abaranger", and many media outlets actually used this name before the series aired. The Abaranger name would go on to be a candidate name for the later series '' Golden Warrior Gold Lightan'', and would finally be used for the 2003

Super Sentai The is a Japanese superhero team media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi. The shows are of the '' tokusatsu'' genre, featuring live action characters and colorfu ...

series ''

Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger is a series of fighting games created by Hudson Soft and developed together with Eighting. The series has been published by multiple companies including Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in S ...

''. There is a mistake in the opening animation sequence where Gordam fires its missiles and its other weapon, the Bocunder, hits the enemies instead; Gordam then fires the Bocunder and the missiles explode.

Story

Five youths from Edo City explore a strange rocky island and discover the mecha that Doctor Hoarai had been creating in order to resist the impending attack by a race of subterranean rock people. Doctor Hoarai was ridiculed by the scientific community for his predictions that such an attack would take place. The youths decide to join the doctor (who was dead but had transferred his mind into a computer) in piloting the vehicles and protecting Earth. The Gowapper 5 Godam team is born. With the aid of the giant fighting robot Godam, the Gowapper team under the leadership of Yoko Misaki must face the hordes of the inhuman subterranean people.

Staff

* Planning: Jinzo Toriumi, Akiyoshi Sakai * Original work:

, Tatsunoko Productions Planning Room * Magazine serialization: Tanoshii Youchien, Otomodachi, Bouken'oh * Director:

Hisayuki Toriumi , sometimes credited as Eikō Toriumi, was a Japanese animation director, storyboardist, screenwriter, and novelist. He is best known for directing the TV show ''Science Ninja Team Gatchaman'' and also credited for his contributions to several o ...

* Character design:

Yoshitaka Amano is a Japanese visual artist, character designer, illustrator, a scenic designer for theatre and film, and a costume designer. He began his career in 1967 at Tatsunoko Production working on anime such as '' Speed Racer'' and later became the c ...

* Mechanical design:

Kunio Okawara is a mecha designer in the Japanese anime industry. He was born and currently lives in Inagi, Tokyo, where he works out of a studio in his home. He was one of the pioneering mecha designers in Japan and established the profession of 'mecha des ...

* Art direction: Mitsuyoshi Kozugi, Tsuneo Nonomiya * Recording director: Kan Mizumoto * Editing: Hajime Taniguchi, Tomoko Kita, Yoko Nidome * Music: Bob Sakuma * Producers: Masatsuku Nagai, Takehiko Goto * Production collaboration:

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon. Terminology Although the S ...

* Production: Tatsunoko Pro, ABC TV (first part), Japan Educational TV (NET TV, now

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

) (latter part)

Characters

Media

Music

* Opening theme song: "Ikuzo! Gordam" (行くぞ! ゴーダム) ** Sung by:

Ichiro Mizuki , better known by his stage name , was a Japanese singer, lyricist, composer, voice actor and actor best known for his work on theme songs for anime and tokusatsu. For over 50 years, he had recorded over 1,200 songs for Japanese film, televisio ...

, Young Fresh ** Composition:

Asei Kobayashi was a Japanese composer. He was also a lyricist, actor, and ''multi-tarento''. He could also sing songs and advertisement songs. Kobayashi was represented by Astro Music. He was the director of the Japan Songwriters Association (J-scat). Kobaya ...

** Lyrics: Ichiro Wakabayashi ** Arrangement: Nozomi Aoki * Ending theme song: "Song of Gowapper 5" (ゴワッパー5の歌) ** Sung by:

, Young Fresh ** Composition:

** Lyrics: Ichiro Wakabayashi ** Arrangement: Nozomi Aoki

Laserdisc

In 1995, the entire series was released as a

Laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

box set.

DVD

Nippon Columbia , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

released the DVD boxset in 2005.

Merchandise

The Gowappa 5 Gordam characters and mecha were released in

's Magnemo toy line in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in 1976. From its first incarnation, Gordam could both combine and transform, like in the show. The Magnemo line was included in "Magnerobo" series by

Takara Tomy (trade name, trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as , became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pi ...

. Included in this series are Steel Jeeg,

Magne Robo Gakeen is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. It is the third installment to Takara's ''Magne-Robo'' franchise. It aired from TV Asahi from September 5, 1976 to June 26, 1977, with a total of 39 episodes. Outside Japan, sev ...

Chojin Sentai Barattack is a Japanese mecha anime produced by Toei Animation, and is the final installment to Takara's ''Magne-Robo'' franchise. It follows the adventures of five teenagers as they fight against an evil alien force using the titular combining mecha, B ...

, and Machine Zaurer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gowappa 5 Godam 1976 anime television series debuts Adventure anime and manga Super robot anime and manga Tatsunoko Production TV Asahi original programming Asahi Broadcasting Corporation original programming